Cloudwatching

And Isaac would certainly see something interesting as an Ebe flew straight across his field of vision while he was looking up at the clouds.

"Ebe, get back here!" shouted Ashlee, running after her Natrelmon. Sparwire was also out, though she was flying beside Ashlee, having known her for longer. Ebe finally circled around and returned to Ashlee, hovering gently beside his trainer as she stopped in front of Isaac.

"I'm sorry about that," said Ashlee. "I just caught him yesterday. I see you have some Natrelmon yourself. How long have you had them for?"

"Well, he didn't really have much to do offensively, but he sure was fast," said Ashlee, after smiling at the Bruse's noise. "And I can see that it's young," continued Ashlee, indicating Bruse with her hand. "I have a Kaeru, too, but... well... yeah..."

Sparwire landed in front of the Bruse and looked up into its face, intrigued. It seemed that she wanted it to moo again. Ebe, though he was also intrigued by the other Natrelmon, was too timid to fully approach them, especially after he had flown by like that, and so he stayed next to Ashlee.

Sparwire immediately jumped up and flapped her wings furiously when the Bruse opened its mouth, afraid of what it might do. Luckily, Sparwire managed to get out of the way before Bruse's tongue reached her. Ironically, Sparwire's frantic flapping of her wings would send a fairly small gust of wind at Bruse; Sparwire inadvertently attacked the Natrelmon while trying to get away from its tongue.

"Umm... I used an E-Rank Relic to catch it. Luckily, I got it on the first try... but why do you ask?" asked Ashlee, surprised at the level of his interest in her Natrelmon.

Ebe was further frightened by the Bruse's actions, and so he flew behind Ashlee and landed, trying to hide behind her legs.

((I think there are some issues with the website right now. The chatbox won't work at all for me and it took forever to load the reply page. Until then, if you want to chat, you could log into RuneScape/FunOrb.))

"Uh... it actually only costs N500, but you don't need to give me any money. It's not your fault that I found it, and I'm sure I'll eventually find some use for it," said Ashlee, surprised by his generous offer. "But, if you're going to be adamant about giving me money, how about we battle for it? I haven't actually battled before, and it would be nice for me to get some practice before the beginners' tournament. So, how about it?"

Sparwire did feel a little pity for the Bruse, but she still didn't approach it again, afraid that it would inadvertently hurt her. Sparwire's interect was peaked, however, at the mention of the word battle. She also had never battled before. Ebe, on the other hand, chirped in surprise and looked up at Ashlee, almost as if he didn't want them to battle.

"Alright, then," said Ashlee. She then turned around and walked away from Isaac, stopping when the distance between them was about fifteen feet and turning around to face Isaac. "Get ready, guys!"

Sparwire excitedly followed Ashlee, gaining height as she did. When Ashlee turned around, Sparwire was about ten feet above the ground, three feet to Ashlee's left, and two feet in front of Ashlee. Ebe took up a similar position on Ashlee's opposite side. Both Natrelmon prepared to attack or defend.

"Sparwire, use Inner Storm on Sakura! Keep it on its toes, and don't give it time to plant any seeds! Ebe, go after it! Still, be ready for an attack from Grodra, guys!" Sparwire obeyed, firing a jolt of electricity straight at the Grass Natrelmon. Ebe began to fly towards Sakura, still maintaining his height. When he reached her, unless an attack or something else would give him cause to change his plan, he would lower his height slightly and begin a Whirlwind.

Luckily, Isaac and Ashlee were in a garden and so the ground here wasn't too hard, which would be bad for Grodra's Stone Blades.

Unfortunately for Isaac and Sakura, the Inner Storm was fired at a high enough angle so that Grianos would not be able to effectively hold its tail that high; thus, the Inner Storm hit Sakura, doing a decent amount of damage, considering Sakura's low defenses. Sakura would need to take quite a bit more damage to be out of the fight, however.

And that was Ebe's job. Surprisingly, Grianos did not really change Ebe's plan that much; Grianos could only effectively block moves from the side, and Ebe would be attacking from above. Ebe only rose a few more feet into the air, staying about twelve feet in front of the ground. Ebe then began his Whirlwind, beating his wings slowly and heavily to maximize the range and power. At this height, he didn't really have to worry about an attack from Sakura or Grianos, especially with only soil for the latter to use. Though Whirlwind wasn't really a damaging attack, the damage would build up over time, and Sakura wouldn't be able to escape any time soon; first, Grianos would have to uncurl its tail from around the Natrelmon, and then Sakura would have to move against Ebe's wind pulling it up, which would also effectively cancel out Sakura's whirlwind, since Ebe was an actual Wind type and was also higher-leveled. In addition, the wind would cause any seeds Sakura tried to launch to lose their momentum and thus be unable to plant themselves into the ground. By the time Sakura would be able to get out of the attack, its relic would probably be glowing.

"Sparwire, Shock again; this time on the other one," said Ashlee quietly to her Natrelmon. Sparwire obeyed. Hopefully, Grianos would be too busy with the Whirlwind and trying to get its tail away from Sakura to realize that this Shock was aimed at the side of its head.

Of course, the entire time, Ashlee was ready with Feeble Walls in case one of her opponents could somehow get off an attack that would actually pose a serious threat to either of her Natrelmon.

Sakura's Whirlwind, after all, did not cancel out Ebe's Whirlwind, as discussed previously. So, Sakura would take heavy damage from Ebe's Whirlwind while it gathered the momentum necessary to lift Sakura off the ground; however, once Sakura was lifted off of the ground, Ebe would change his wing movements slightly so that he was simply using the Wind innate, not a Whirlwind, which would just push Sakura back onto the ground. Ebe would also then allow himself to lower two feet down to his original height so that the attack would gain more power. The wind's pressing down on Sakura would prevent it from being able to move out of the area of the attack, and so Sakura would continue to take damage until its Relic glowed, which would not take too long at this point. Of course, this plan was subject to change and Ashlee was prepared to use Feeble Walls if necessary.

Sparwire, meanwhile, was intent on keeping Grianos distracted, as Ashlee ordered her presently. Sparwire fired another Inner Storm at Grianos, hoping to distract it from Ebe. Of course, Sparwire was also ready to dodge if she needed to, and Ashlee was also prepared to help Sparwire if needed.

Ebe did follow Sakura with the wind until Isaac recalled her. Then, Ebe took a wide turn in the air and began to approach the Grianos from behind. Once he reached Grianos, he would simply use the Wind innate on Grianos from above, mostly just to slow it down and do some minor damage. Of course, Ebe would be able to react and Ashlee would be ready to help.

To dodge the slabs, Sparwire simply flew a little towards Grianos, and since all three of them were fired in an arc to be able to hit Sparwire, they all flew neatly over her (since the Grianos unfortunately didn't adjust its aim for each slab), but towards Ashlee. Sparwire fired two Shocks straight at Grianos while it was still busy firing the last two slabs, and it was also at this point that Ebe's wind began to beat down on Grianos. Hopefully, the combination of these two factors would cause the Shocks to hit.

Ashlee shrieked when she realized that the slabs were headed towards her. She began to move out of the way, and the first one would have hit her were it not for Isaac's Feeble Wall. Luckily, though, she was able to avoid the last two and then return her attention to the battle, once again ready to use a Feeble Wall.

Sparwire simply began to beat her wings harder to dodge the slabs; this movement did two things: first, it raise her altitude enough to avoid the first slab; secondly, it created a gust of wind that blew the second slab slightly off course, causing both of them to miss. Sparwire then fired two Inner Storms at the Grianos, taking its movement into account. The lizard would probably only be able to dodge one due to its low speed and the wind beating down on it (even though Grianos didn't realize it, it was still there; Grianos' anger can't function like an innate).

"Well, you only have one Natrelmon left, and I have two. Sparwire is more able to dodge than your Grianos. It will probably take a while, but I'm still going to win this. Why drag it out?" asked Ashlee, hoping that Isaac would realize that it was pointless to continue the fight. She was still ready to use a Feeble Wall while talking, also.

Isaac was momentarily interrupted when Sparwire, now on the ground next to Ashlee, began to glow with a white light before growing and changing form slightly. When the light was gone, it was apparent that Sparwire was now a Crowire.

"Wow," said Ashlee, stunned by her Sparwire's evolution after only one battle. "That was a great battle, um... do I actually know your name? I'm Ashlee, by the way." Ashlee then took the money and the drawing from Isaac's hand. "Wow... that wasn't necessary... but thank you, Isaac." Ashlee started to blush a little as well, not really sure what to say in a situation like this.

"So, do you um... want to exchange PDA numbers? So we can call each other... if we want to battle again or... something?" asked Ashlee timidly.

Ashlee took the paper Isaac had written his number on and inserted it into her pocket so that she could program it into her PDA later, after carefully putting Isaac's drawing in her bag and putting the money in her pocket. She took the other paper and pencil and wrote her number on it and then handed it back to Isaac.

"That would be fun," said Ashlee, "though I don't think I'm going to try to catch another Natrelmon. I already caught Kaeru today, and I don't want to take more than my fair share... but I'm still happy to come along!" She then withdrew Crowire's and Ebe's relics from her bag, noting how the former's had changed shape, and recalled both of the Natrelmon. Even though they didn't get hit, they could use their rest as well. "So, are we ready?"